Cabinet has urged striking security guards and their employers to resolve their differences and end violent protests. Briefing the media after Cabinet’s meeting at Parliament on Wednesday, government communications head Joel Netshitenzhe said Cabinet once more condemned in the strongest terms the acts of violence by some demonstrators.
South Africa’s Cabinet made the claim on Wednesday to have the largest number of people on anti-retroviral treatment for HIV/Aids in the world. Government spokesperson Joel Netshitenzhe said the government would be ”scaling up its communication and social mobilisation” on the Aids fight.
Cabinet has backed Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils over allegations by the African National Congress Youth League that he may have had an underhanded role in the rape trial against former deputy president Jacob Zuma. The Cabinet issued the statement on Wednesday saying it rejected "insinuations" that any member of the executive or employee of the state may have been involved in illegal "underhand activities … leading up to the trial".
The City of Cape Town has withdrawn permission for the Congress of South African Trade Unions to march there during a national strike on Thursday. Mayoral spokesperson Robert MacDonald said the decision came after Tuesday’s violent march in the city.
A visit by South African President Thabo Mbeki to Palestine is being discussed with that nation’s president as well as the new Hamas government, but any visit will be judged against its contribution to peace in the area, said South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aziz Pahad, on Wednesday.
The chairperson of the South African Trade and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) in the Western Cape has apologised for the violent rampage through Cape Town by striking guards on Tuesday. Jerome Fortune said Satawu members would probably lay charges of assault against police.
A South African Press Association (Sapa) reporter was treated for a wound in the thigh after being assaulted by striking security guards during their rampage through Cape Town’s city centre on Tuesday. The journalist, Wendell Roelf, was also hit on the head by a sjambok and in the ribs with a rock.
The chief whip of the opposition Democratic Alliance is to propose to the National Assembly on Wednesday that a joint ad hoc committee of MPs should be appointed to probe ”all aspects of the handling” of the Travelgate scandal by Parliament. Three-and-a-half years have elapsed since the Travelgate scandal was uncovered.
Thousands of striking security guards smashed car and shop windows in central Cape Town on Tuesday morning while marching along Plein Street to present a memorandum to Parliament. About 5Â 000 protesters marched along Plein Street, many of them armed with steel pipes and wooden sticks.
Six people were arrested in the Western Cape for their involvement in internet child pornography and possession of images, police said on Monday. Captain Elliot Sinyangana said the men were arrested as a result of an intensive police investigation which started in October last year.
The South African Communist Party has denied intending to ”grill” Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils on his role in former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s rape trial. The party said on Monday it had noted a newspaper report about Kasrils’ attendance at this weekend’s central committee meeting and wanted to set the record straight.
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=zuma_report"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/243078/zuma.jpg" align=left border=0></a>The African National Congress Women’s League has welcomed the resolution of the ruling movement’s national executive committee to accept the request by the movement’s second-in-command, Jacob Zuma, to resume his duties. The committee made the decision following the acquittal of Zuma — who was dismissed last year as South Africa’s deputy president — for rape.
A controversial try gave the Northern Bulls a 43-10 triumph over the Western Stormers in an all-South Africa Super 14 clash on Saturday and an unexpected place in the semifinals. Needing to win by at least 32 points and score a minimum of four tries, poor travellers the Bulls were given little hope of walloping the resurgent Stormers.
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Reiterating claims of a political conspiracy, Jacob Zuma’s lawyer argued in an affidavit on Friday for his client’s corruption trial to be concluded speedily to avoid harming his political aspirations. The affidavit was filed in support of an application by arms company Thint for particulars on corruption charges it is to face alongside Zuma.
South African President Thabo Mbeki has confirmed the appointment of a Supreme Court of Appeal judge, a provincial deputy judge president and two new judges following his acceptance of the recommendations of the Judicial Service Commission.
The Durban High Court reserved judgement on Friday in a bid by arms company Thint for immediate further particulars on the corruption charges it is to face alongside former deputy president Jacob Zuma. Thint and Thint Holdings filed papers in the court last month seeking to compel the prosecution to make available further particulars on .the indictment
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Evidence in court should not be seen as a policy statement, particularly on Aids, the African National Congress and its alliance partners said on Friday in welcoming Jacob Zuma’s acquittal on a rape charge. The media and other commentators should not ”proceed from a position of ignorance”, said the ANC’s weekly online newsletter.
A generic performance contract for municipal managers will be unveiled on May 30 and all their performance contracts must be renegotiated within the next six weeks, says Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi. The minister rejected complaints that some municipal managers were earning packages in excess of ministers "or even the president" — that were over R1-million a year.
More than 2 300 suspects were arrested for murder and 1 619 for attempted murder between January and March this year, the government’s justice, crime prevention and security cluster of ministries reported on Thursday. A further 3 967 arrests were made for rape, 423 for indecent assault, 11 445 for common assault, 3 614 for aggravated robbery and 4 010 for common robbery.
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Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and her director general Thami Mseleku have accused the media of sowing confusion in the wake of former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s statement about showering after sleeping with an HIV-positive woman.
Ending three days of legal jousting, the Cape High Court reserved judgement on Thursday in a case that will decide the future of axed Cape Town city manager Wallace Mgoqi. Judge Deon van Zyl said he would need time with his two fellow judges on the full bench to consider the arguments of both sides.
The justice department is unaware of Cape Judge President John Hlophe having received permission to engage in outside business ventures, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Brigitte Mabandla said on Thursday. There is ”no such record in the department”, she said at a media briefing.
The Democratic Alliance has urged President Thabo Mbeki to broaden the Donen commission’s terms of reference to include a probe into allegations of African National Congress involvement in the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal. The Freedom Front Plus also wants the commission’s terms of reference extended.
South African Airways (SAA) was likely to report its financials as a separate company for the 2006/07 financial year and its separation from its parent company Transnet was well under way, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said on Tuesday.
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Former South African deputy president Jacob Zuma dismissed suggestions on Tuesday that President Thabo Mbeki had played a part in his rape trial and upcoming corruption trial. ”No, I have not said anything in that direction. I would not want to discuss that matter,” he told the Cape Talk 567 radio station on Tuesday afternoon.
South Africa’s Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour has reported figures indicating that the number of prisoner escapes from correctional facilities has been on a downward trend in the post-apartheid period. Just 120 prisoners escaped in 2005 and 30 escaped in the first three months of this year.
Former Cape Town city manager Wallace Mgoqi went to court on Tuesday to try to reverse the Democratic Alliance-led council’s refusal to extend his contract. African National Congress councillors and functionaries turned out in support of Mgoqi at the Cape High Court.
The government appears more concerned about protecting its political elite than it does ordinary women and children, says the Democratic Alliance — ”at the same time the African National Congress government is closing down the child-protection units”.
Three opposition parties are to hold a meeting at Parliament this afternoon to protest against being excluded from the parliamentary programme on Monday to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Constitution. President Thabo Mbeki is to address a joint sitting of Parliament at 2.15pm on Monday.
The transformation of the South African Broadcasting Corporation from an apartheid government mouthpiece to a non-partisan public broadcaster demonstrates the government’s resolve to encourage media freedom and diversity in South Africa, the African National Congress said on Friday.
Constitution Day, May 8, must be a day of celebration — a red-letter day — for South Africa because what it represents took 53 years to achieve, says South African President Thabo Mbeki. This was the entrenchment of the concept of self-determination.
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If there was anything to celebrate about the rape trial of former deputy president Jacob Zuma, it was that the proceedings in Johannesburg have revealed a small but significant sign that South Africa was slowly moving into a non-racial future, says official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon.